Christmas cards with rhinestone dots

Do you still have a few more Christmas cards to make? 

I always end up making a bunch of last minute cards and look for designs that are quick to make but look fantastic. 

If you're like that too, you need to check out the new rhinestone dots. At only $1.40 for 10 you can really go to town! 

 Simply mat a couple of patterned papers on a white card, round some edges and die cut a hole. Stamp the greeting into the hole (it helps to outline the circle in pencil so you know where to stamp). Tie a ribbon bow and glue a piece of ribbon on the card as string. 

 Now to decorate! I glued rhinestone dots in clear, fuschia, purple and black (they also come in gold) around the hole, added some metal stars in pink and silver and a few rhinestones. 

Done!

If you have a Christmas tree embossing folder, you can make this pretty card. Simply emboss silver cardstock, mat it and glue on rhinestone dots and rhinestones. 

It's so simple, but the chunky rhinestone make it look fancy. What will you create with them?

♥♥♥

Joyous

In the past I've been guilty of dressing the kids in clothes that match the papers I want to use. (Don't pretend like you haven't!) But lately they're getting a bit big for that. 

 It's our last class of the year and we're making a flip-out photo section and that way your photos don't have to colour match! You will have space for 1 regular and 2 half-sized photos. 

 Why not join me? We'll have a Christmas party after class.

Noel

Is it really Christmas time already? I still have lots of photos from Christmas past that I have never scrapped and I came across this photo of little Leah. I wanted to create a whimsical layout, with just a tiny photo and this is what we will do next week in class. 

 There is a pretty gold frame and some very subtle embossing on the background with distress inking. A few stamped baubles, a tiny wooden tree and a candy cane charm and the Christmas look is complete.

 Would you like to learn how to make your own glitter dots? It's super easy.

 So, come along and scrap those Christmas memories! For those who have lots of photos to scrap, I suggest teaming up this layout with a pocket page, using the scraps.

A French inspired layout

For pure style and elegance, you can't go better than French. Next week's class is featuring an Eiffel Tower and some French rub-ons. 

Don't dismay if you haven't been to France! My grandma (the one in the middle in 1948) wasn't in France either, but the style suits it well. We'll be making a linen flower too. So pretty.

Join me at these times:

Tuesday 10am

Thursday 6pm

Friday 9:30am

♥

Geli

Ripped paper & lace background

I saw this cool technique in the latest Scrapbooking Memories magazine 17.5 and here is my take on it. It turned out very purple!

Grunge Time Charming Frame - the boys' version!

You've seen the pretty, girly version of the Grunge Time Charming Frame kit (see the finished sample here) and here is a version for the boys! 

Same kit, different theme. At $3.50 they're a steal.

☺

I spray painted my clock piece with some stone effect spray paint, but you could use a different medium like Ferro or Distress Embossing Enamel) to get a similar effect:

Next, glue the frame on a piece of acetate with Glossy Accents or Dimensional Magic and adhere a die-cut round photo behind that:

Fill in the spaces between the Roman numerals with Crackle Medium or Distress Crackle Paint to get some cool cracks in your "glass":

Place the acrylic block on some cool paper, trace around it and cut it out. Shade the edges with Distress Ink and glue it to the acrylic block with Glossy Accents or Dimensional Magic:

To give the chipboard cogs a cool grungy look, heat emboss them in several layers of embossing powders and while still hot, sprinkle on some Micro Beads. Then add one more layer of embossing powder on top and heat one more time. You can also try embedding some Mica Fragments:

Now use a hot glue gun to glue your clock frame into the block's slit and glue down the embossed chipboard and metal cogs:

Gather some boyish embellishments to finish the look. I used:

- the "game over" tile from the Boys to Men Charming Button Collection

- a spanner charm

- 2 arrow charms

- all the metal cog charms from the kit

- a few ball chains

 - more micro beads

- a glass cabochon

- some star sequins (to hide any hot glue mess)

 - a bottle cap embellishment from the Grunge Charming Dates set

Did you know you can get rid of those pesky stringy bits from the hot glue by pointing your heat gun at them for a few seconds? They will melt away! Just don't do it long enough to melt anything else.

As you can see, this frame is most versatile. Just compare the 2 versions and create your own favourite look!

 

Ticket to the Lion King

We were lucky enough to win tickets to the Lion King stage show and I took my girls to see it. We all loved it! 

 Did you see a cool show or go on a great trip lately? This layout will be perfect to scrap those photos! Grap some paper and a few flowers and we will create the rest in class.

Can you stamp with an embossing folder? Yes you can! Ink it up and stamp away. Perfect for those times when you don't have the right stamp.

Our champ - pie chart and hidden photo

Over the years working as a scrapbook teacher I have noticed a couple of things:

Problem #1:

 A lot of our older photos feature a lot of background (often messy) and a tiny subject. I'm talking about your toddler doing something adorable, but you can hardly see them. 

Solution:

Using those photos on a pie chart, gives us the chance to zoom right in and you can use more than one photo.

 Problem #2: 

There is this privacy problem. You can't show off photos with other people's kids without permission and it can make scrapbooking a little tricky. 

Or maybe you have a few embarrassing shots of the above mentioned adorable toddler you want to keep for their 21st birthday, but they aren't for all to see?

Solution:

Hide them! It's obvious of course and there are many cool ways to create pockets to open flaps to lift and here is one:

(I have blurred the faces for the above reason) 

So if you have a few cool potty training photos, uncles and aunties from your wedding you'd rather not display or just plain old too many photos to chose from, grab a cardstock, photos and some scraps; join me in class next week and we will create this pretty page! It can be made boyish without trouble. 

Snap! 4 ways to use your ink pads

Are your ink pads gathering dust? 

Did you know you can use them for more than stamping? 

In next week's class we're using inks in 4 different ways: 

- misting them with water to create a water colour background

- colouring in with a water brush

- distressing the paper edges

- and of course good old stamping 

 Then there are also some funky chevrons and hearts in fake metal look. 

If you feel like learning a few tricks and tips on what to do with your ink pads, join me in class next week! 

Layout with flip-out photo booklet

Hands up if you're the owner of a 6x6" paper pad or two! Personally, I own enough to keep up scrapping through the zombie apocalypse and beyond! We buy these little pads thinking what a great deal, we get all these patterns and they're all matchy-matchy and then they're forgotten in some corner, never to be used. Not anymore! 

 In next week's class we're doing a fantastic layout that features a flip-out photo booklet and best of all, the patterned papers are all from a 6x6" pad! Dig them out, girls, or help me use up mine! Here is what it looks like when it's open:

 It's always a challenge to use more than 1 photo on a layout without it being cluttered. Here you'll have space for 4 photos.

♥

The rest of the background is kept subtle, with just a bit of stencilling, embossing and paint spots. 

The background design was inspired by a layout by Beck Beattie, as seen in the latest Scrapbook Ideas mag (ASI#29).

You can join me in class on:

Tuesdays 10am

Thursdays 6pm

Fridays 9:30am

Fun- Back to the basics with a twist

Remember a time when scrapbooking was all about cutting photos and papers into geometric shapes and pasting them on a piece of cardstock? Why not update the good old formula a little? 

  For next week's class I picked 3 round photos, which sit pretty on 3 strips, which also include the title (you can use any 3 letter word)...

...and it's finished off with some splats, sequins and a flower cluster:

If you want, you can make this boyish too. Replace the flower with a boy embellishent, use black instead of sparkly white paper and paint dots instead of sequins. I'll give it a go! (come back later and see)

Oh snap!

Ok, how about we do something for the boys for a change? Not a flower or swirl in sight! Instead we will do some scrunching, inking, splattering, stencilling and heat embossing to turn a plain old cardstock into a grungy background. 

 And for a bit of journalling, we'll add a pocket! Hearts for boys? Why not! This one is a bit on the grungy side, so we should get away with it.

Cards with Charmed Life pocket tags

Do you like pocket pages? I do and my2angels sells some beautiful handmade sets (find the whole range here). All you really need to do is add some photos and journalling. Too easy. You can see some Charmed Life sets in action here.

 But sometimes you end up with one or two tags from the set left over and what do you do with them? Make them into cards of course! I started out with this set:

...and ended up with 5 beautiful cards:

All I did was some stamping, a patterned paper mat from my stash and a plain white card. A bit of colouring in and you are DONE! Because the tags are already beautifully decorated, there isn't much else to do. 

Use whatever colouring in technique floats your boat. I used Twinkling H2Os and water markers.

 

 Not into colouring in? Leave it black and white!

 And if you mess up the stamping? Stamp it on another piece of white paper and glue that on top. Not that I would have done that...caugh caugh.

Outlining the white cardstock with a black pen makes it pop off the background. Broken lines are great if you don't rock at free-hand drawing straight lines (and who does?!)

So dig out some of your stamps that are collecting dust and make something beautiful with these Charmed Life pocket tags.

Pop over to my2angels now and check out the Charmed Life Collections now (and at half price they are a steal, not too mention time saving!)